reading reflection #11

Kim Poe

Reading Reflection #11

As a result of using the project-based learning approach, you will end up with vivid memories, souvenirs, artifacts you have collected along the way, and great ides for shaping your next learning adventure. These projects make it so your classroom is not flat, and extends the walls of the classroom.

Some great ideas for bringing your project home are to share your project ideas with an existing network, create a project library, turn your project into an archive on the web, and publish your project. Another great idea is to enter your project in a contest. This gives you the opportunity to “put your best work forward” and you may gain more exposure for your project.

This chapter definitely relates to my project, by giving great ideas on how to wrap it up and what to do when you are finishing a project. I really liked the idea of entering your project into a contest or publishing it on the web. It is also a great idea to create an online resource for other teachers that are looking to do a project with their class.

Reading Reflection #10

Kim Poe

Reading Reflection #10

It is important to set aside time for your students to reflect on their work. They can reflect on what they have learned through the project, and what they might have done differently. It is important for students to be active in all part of the project including the assessment stage. They need to understand the categories by which their performance will be measured. Students can review the rubrics that they were given at the beginning of the project and reflect on how well their projects demonstrate or apply what they have learned. Setting aside time for reflection helps students reveal things they might not have thought about otherwise, such as: what they learned, what they enjoyed about learning, their growth as learners, and what / how they want to learn in projects ahead.

Reflection is important because it helps the students think about how joyous and gratifying the learning journey can be. They can recall their positive learning experiences that made them confident and look forward to more. The realization that they are quite good at something, or understand something complex can be a great motivator for students. Students should also elaborate, to figure out where to go after they have finished the project. They can elaborate about things like what they are wondering about next, what they want to learn about now, and how they want to go about it.

Schools also build tradition and identity. Some schools are known for their sports, while other schools may be known for their symphonies. Community members will notice and value students' accomplishments, and give you enthusiastic support, and after a time expect to be involved. It is important to show your class accomplishments are the result of the students' commitment to their own learning, and a result of their hard work.

You can build your school's identity as a place where students learn through meaningful projects by celebrating their learning. Some ideas for celebrating are creating a blog, putting on a display, or holding a party.

There were many key ideas in this chapter. I really liked the idea of celebrating your students work. I feel like this would really motivate the students and give them confidence in their abilities. For our project we could make displays of some of the things students had created throughout the project or post digital assignments, such as digital stories and podcasts, on a classroom blog. I think this would be a great way to get parents as well as the community involved, and help the students to feel proud of their accomplishments.  

Reading Reflection #9

Kim Poe

Reading Reflection #9:

Assessing students' prior knowledge is important in order to measure the distance they travel during a project. One way to assess students' prior knowledge is through a “KWL” activity. This is where they can write what they already know, what they want to know, and at the end of the project write what they have learned. KWL activities are very valuable for assessing students' prior knowledge and measuring how much they have learned throughout the project.

Establishing anchors is another important part of assessing students learning through a project. This gives you a sense of where students are starting and how far they are going as they work to meet their learning goals. It gives you a starting point from which you can measure how far a student has come by the end of the project.

There are many different ways to assess students learning that are more effective than traditional test. One idea from this chapter is to have the students create something new. It mentioned a class where the teacher had the students create a comic based on the book they had read to assess their learning. This is a much more valuable way of assessing the students learning as compared to a multiple choice test that just tells you if the students read the book. Another idea is to show the students a film based on the book and have them compare how the film strays from the book, how they are similar and how theya re different.

Assessment is a very important part of any project. It is essential to be able to measure what your students have learned or what skills they have gained from a project. This chapter gave me some very good ideas for assessing my students' learning after completing a project, or assessing their prior knowledge when starting a project.  

Reading Reflection #8

           Kim Poe

Reading Reflection #8

Integrating technology helps student to reach an authentic audience. This audience can include family members, peers, local community members, as well as a much wider world. An example of this is using blogs to improve student writing. Knowing that others will be reading, watching, listening, and commenting on their work can be a powerful motivator. Digital-age projects also offer almost unlimited opportunities for branching out from the classroom. This can include connecting with fellow learners as well as consulting with experts.

The EAST initiative model stands for the Environmental and Spatial Technologies. There are four essential ideas as part of the original design of the EAST model. These four models are, student driven learning, authentic project-based learning, technology as tools, and collaboration. Educators take on a new title as facilitators. Interdisciplinary learning, teaming, authentic projects, and student-driven learning are new concepts for many educators. Teachers must also learn to let students take the lead.

Through letting students take the lead, they can tackle an issue in their own life, such as a student creating a website about living with dyslexia. They learn to think as detectives, journalists, folklorists, scientists, and historians.

This chapter connects to my project because it demonstrates the importance of letting students take the lead. Students can learn much more when they are working at their own pace. They can also learn about something that is very important to them, which inspires them and makes the learning more meaningful.

Reading Reflection #7

 Kim Poe

Reading Reflection #7

There are three levels of classroom discussion: teacher to teacher, student to student and teacher to student. The teacher to teacher discussion refers to collaboration between teachers on everything from procedures for the project, to formative assessment. The student to student classroom discussion includes students talking about their learning experiences as they unfold. Good communication skills are part of effective teamwork and will help keep their team organized and on track. Teacher to student discussion consists of circulating, observing, and talking with smaller groups of students.

There are four different types of question for checking in on students projects. These four types are procedural, teamwork, understanding, and self-assessment. Procedural questions are like “housekeeping” questions. Are the students staying on task? Do we have the right materials available?

Teamwork questions help you to assess the team dynamics. How are team members getting along? Are students able to manage conflict themselves, or do they need your help? Understanding questions give you an example to encourage students to push themselves if you see opportunities for students to go beyond expectations.

Optimizing technology can be beneficial to students. It can help them reach their learning goals as they are expanding their horizons. For example, students can use MP3 players to replay podcasts. This is a useful tool as the students are able to replay the podcasts to match their learning speeds, without having to ask the teacher to go back over information that they did not understand the first time. Students are also able to use technology to connect with outside experts or a broader community, through email and online collaborative tools. Students can gain new insights into how to communicate with a culturally diverse audience.

One way that a 21st-century skill can make or break a project is if the students are intimidated. Make sure your students are comfortable with the technology and reassure them that they can create meaningful projects. It may be necessary to break projects up into smaller, less-intimidating chunks.

This chapter relates to my project because it has a lot of valuable information about classroom discussion and optimizing technology. It is important to have meaningful discussion in the classroom instead of a bunch of side talk. It is important to talk about what is happening as it is unfolding.

GROUP MEETING???

Hey guys can everyone meet monday to work on our website because there are a few things we need to change and work on together. I think if we got together even for an hour we could probably finish the website. Anytime on monday works for me, if you guys have finals let me know what time on the blog and we can figure out a time to get together!

-Thanks,
Caryn

Final Group Concept Map

My lessons!!

Exercise fun:

https://w.taskstream.com/Lesson/View/804FBA8F8D662A76AF77E5A3B276AE7A


Importance of sleep:

https://w.taskstream.com/Lesson/View/46BFE055FA33CD26BE7528B4B266BFC4

Reflection #11-Caryn Hay

Caryn Hay

EDT 3470

4/13/12

Reflection # 11

This chapter begins to wrap the book up as a whole and discusses what occurs as a result of using the project-based learning approach. Some of the results of using project-based learning are vivid memories, souvenirs/artifacts that you have collected throughout the process, and plenty of ideas for shaping your next project.

            The chapter then finishes by discussing the ways you can bring your project home, or open new doors and create connections that you can build into future designs. Those are to capitalize on your investment, which is focusing on what it was that made your project successful. Critique your work, have your colleagues and yourself sit down and discuss the project as a whole to decide if this was a good idea or there are ways you could make it better. Share your insights; you can do this by creating a project library or sharing your idea with another group of people. Become a resource for your colleagues; use your experience to help teach them what they can do to be successful in their own classrooms. Enter a contest; this gives you the chance to put some of your best work ahead. Finally, enjoy the journey, this means whatever it is you decide to do remember to enjoy the experience.

Reflection #11

           The classroom changes to bother the educator and learner as a result of using the project based learning approach.  From the textbook, one teacher who had been using the project based learning approach said it changed her approach to the classroom.  This approach made her look past the four walls of her classroom and extend them.  This approach also changed the ways the students viewed school.  They became more engaged in the content, they were really learning!  Also, the students seemed more grown up from the new approach, they began to understand the components of the project.
           When you have a  good turn out of a project, the teachers in which you have collaboratively worked with should be given your insight on the results, so they too can implement the project.  Also, you can share you ideas with other teachers, as as get ideas from networks online, where teachers all around the world can go to.  You can also start a library in your school or district, as another resource for teachers.  Turning your lessons and ideas into an archive on the web is another idea to get other teachers to know and use your projects.  This is what we are doing in this course, gathering everything we have created for this one project and putting it all onto a web page as a resource for other teachers who may want to use it.

https://w.taskstream.com/Lesson/View/09067AB3A99EAFF97FB957E47B3884F3

My lessons from Taskstream

https://w.taskstream.com/Lesson/View/58AD388DF8AEDD02F3507FE52A9B1B03


https://w.taskstream.com/Lesson/View/3B832BEF7BFED05223ADB2B98FA9EBD0

Team email

Here is our team email for the gmail account information:


username:  wmu.stayinghealthy
password: wmubronco

Reflection # 10 - Caryn Hay

Caryn Hay

EDT 3470

4/6/12

Chapter 10 Reflection

            This chapter begins by discussing how reflection is a necessary point in learning, just because students finish an assignment does not mean the learning is over. Setting aside time for reflection helps students reveal things they might not otherwise think about, such as what they learned, their growth throughout the project, and what they want to learn in the future. A good example of reflection for a project that mostly consisted of writing, would be to ask students how they grew as writers. Also most importantly help students to reflect on how gratifying their learning was during the project.

            The chapter goes on to discuss the importance of building tradition and identity within a school. Your school should be known for something, whether it is sending kids to competitions for their work or experiments, or if your school has a place to showcase student’s work within the building. Making a community with students gives them a feeling of wanting to learn and being apart of something. Give students a place to celebrate their work, create a blog or throw a celebration party. Build your school’s identity as a place where kids get to learn through projects.

            This chapter relates a lot to what we are doing in class. We write reflections weekly to think about what we learned throughout the reading. We are making websites not only as an assignment, but also as a place where we can show off and celebrate all the work we have done this semester.

#10 Reflection

            When educators set aside time to have their students reflect on what they have learned in the previous project just before moving onto an other topic, can really place the everlasting learning experience on the students.  In the projects, just like we created in our class now, are large in size, therefore reflecting at the end of the entire unit will help students in grasping all that was taught and learned throughout.  The way the text described reflections of students was by writing; in this writing they would answer questions that could possibly prompt them in their writing.  Some questions that could prompt your students include what were your joys and good experiences with the project, how was the project important to you, how was the project important to you, and many more.  These questions will pose as a go to when you ask your students to reflect on the project.  Also the reflection will be a good ending to the unit, summing up all they have learned.  When you ask students not only to reflect but also to elaborate what they have learned, a good way of doing this is by asking them where they want to go from there.

            By building traditions and identity within your school or classroom will provide everlasting effects on the children who learned from those projects.  Creating traditions, year after year in your classroom with the same project, you can start inviting others in the community to join in; this will then turn into a tradition that many will know about.  After this becomes a success you will have many who want to join in by having you as a teacher or expect to be invited to the celebrations of the traditions held in your classroom. For the students who participate in the projects, which then become celebrations, have the feeling of honor in their work.  Also, by displaying your students’ work through blogs, having an event to elaborate their learning can also build the identity of your classroom or school.  I liked the idea in the text of having classroom display of the projects throughout the year, and having a retrospective review of the year, where students and others from the community can capture the hard work they did during the school year and respect the learning they have accomplished.

            I think from what I have learned in this chapter of the text that relates mostly to our in class projects right now is the reflection at the end. Now we don’t have an actual classroom of students that we have implemented our projects to, but this last project of ours, our team website is like a reflection of ourselves.  All of the components we have created to make this projects complete is now joining altogether to make this website. 

#9 Reflection

All students work at different paces, but most certainly they never start at the same place, but establishing anchors will give the teacher a sense of where the students are starting at and how far they will go to meet their learning goals.  By having your students express their learning journey of the topic you will better understand their prior knowledge and what they have learned.  There are multiple ways to assess what your students learned during a project, by having them reflect on it can show you and other learners how and what the student learned.  Another way to assess your students’ knowledge is to have them summarize in some way at the end of a project.  The example in the textbook is to write a book.  A very interested and exciting way to assess would be to apply what they have learned to real life professionals who can evaluate them.  Lastly, by encouraging your students to enter a contest or submit for publication would be very exciting to a student.  I think it’s a unique and fun way to assess, and who knows they may win something.  All in all these ways of assessing what your students learned are good ideas.  This chapter of the text can relate to my topic of staying healthy for an elementary grade classroom is that instead of assessing the student just by a test or paper, I have them doing a big project, in one of my lessons I created, in which they also talk to real life professionals and once done can apply it to their lives as well. 

Relfection # 9 -Caryn Hay

Caryn Hay

3/30/12

EDT 3470

Reflection # 9

            This chapter is about making assessments meaningful. End-of-project assessments are to check how well the student’s project demonstrated what they learned. Grading projects to see how well a student understood a topic is great, but this method allows you to go deeper to check the effort, creativity, and teamwork that went into the project. Alternative assessments allow the teacher to check the student’s understanding of a topic better than a multiple choice test.

            As teachers we need to realize not all students start at the same place when beginning a project, meaning the distance they took their project will be different also. The chapter suggests establishing “anchors” to get an idea of where each student started their project, and how far they worked to meet their goals. This means that teachers need to be more creative when they assess students, so they can measure how much the student gained from the project, beginning to end.

            The chapter closes with giving a few examples to assess what students learned during the project. The first way is to simply talk to your students. Ask each student on video, voice recording, or simply documented on paper what they learned by the end of the project. Allow others to comment and give feedback, which will help the students in the future with upcoming projects. The second way is to create something new. At the end of the project students can create a new project or creative way to display what they learned or took away from their project. An example could be writing a book or newsletter. The third idea is to model real-world assessments. This means to allow students to take what they learned and put it into action, or send their work to someone of that professional field. Lastly, allow students to enter a contest. Contests always push children to try harder especially if they know they have a chance of winning something, even if its just a school or class contest.

#8 Reflection

            Digital tools of the 21^st century aid students in expanding connections and learning outside the classroom.  A way of doing this is having them create an online digital story.  Through this they can branch out from the classroom, for they may want to consult experts on their topic, or they may want to communicate or collaborate with other learners from across the globe, which will result in being and working in a culturally diverse world.  When your students learn in new ways and expand in new directions you know they are gaining new knowledge.  When students are able to interview experts they are getting personal responses and experiences with the interview process.  Also, by giving students opportunities to get involved, meet and talk to experts will get them so interested and excited about the topic and to learn more.  But it is our job, as teachers to provide and set up meetings with experts.

            Environmental and spatial technologies (East) initiative network of schools have been demonstrating the benefits of using technology for a real purpose.  This means to improve or make a difference in their community.  East initiative started in Arkansas in 1996 and is now over 260 schools in 7 states, even the government has gotten involved.  In 2001 it became a non-profit organization.  The east model is built on four essential ideas:

1. Student-driven learning: students need to be responsible for their own learning.
2. Authentic project-based learning: students should be engaged in their communities.
3. Technology as tools: students need to access to the relevant technologies that professionals use to solve real problems.
4. Collaboration: when students collaborate projects, they accomplish more than any one person can do in isolation.

When teachers join East they become facilitators and their classroom roles change.  They must also let students take the lead when it comes to learning about technology.  There is also a 3 weeklong ongoing professional development for the facilitators in training.

            As teachers become more comfortable with the project approach, they will find students more capable of leading their projects.  Once students can grasp a topic, learn about it, relate to it and are given appropriate technological devices, they from there can take it into their own hands and provide a successful project. 

Reflection # 8 -Caryn Hay

Caryn Hay

3/23/12

EDT 3470

Reflection # 8

            Chapter eight begins with some ways to build connections and branch out beyond the classroom. An important way to extend the learning outside the classroom is the idea of incorporating technology. Digital tools help to allow students to connect with other people or information outside of the classroom. Many times students will try harder knowing that their audience is larger and other people they do not know so well will be seeing their work. Students can use blogs to not only connect with other students, but blogs also allow them to connect with experts on the topic they are studying at the time.

            The chapter introduces the EAST initiative model, which means environmental and spatial technologies. Students who use this technology are using it for a real purpose, meaning they can solve problems and make improvements in their communities. Technology is fun for students, they get the opportunity to use tools that are interesting, yet are learning something amazing at the same time.

            The chapter ends on the note of explaining why we need to let our students lead. Allowing our students to introduce and talk about their projects that they are interested in is exciting to them. Students learn more when they are interested in something and we, as teachers should be encouraging this behavior. If a student finds a blog that they want to join we should have an open mind and check over the site before allowing them to do so, but consider what they are insisting upon.